Worst: " Turn nothing into something, still can make that, straw into gold chump / I will spin Rumpelstiltskin in a haystack"įor those who don't remember their fairy tales, Rumpelstiltskin is the crazy little magic dude who helped the miller's daughter turn straw into gold. Speaking of cojones, shout out to the first Jeff VanVonderen reference in rap history. It takes some real balls to kick off a song with a reference to your own song, but when that song is one of the best hip-hop songs ever made, you're allowed to have balls that big. Perhaps Em says it best on album closer Evil Twin – ‘I listen and revisit those old albums/Often as I can and skim through all them bitches/To make sure I keep up with my competition.’ He remains his own greatest rival, and if the second Marshall Mathers LP isn’t quite as good as the first one, it comes damn close.Best: " No, I ain't much of a poet but I know somebody /Once told me to seize the moment and don't squander it"īonus Best: " I think you've been wandering off down yonder / And stumbled onto Jeff VanVonderen / Cause I need an interventionist to intervene between me and this monster" It’s comfortably Eminem’s best album since The Eminem Show, and it stakes his continued claim to relevance following the emergence of new blood such as Kendrick Lamar (who features here on the enjoyable Love Game). But for the most part they are outweighed by the sheer talent that lies at the heart of MMLP2. The homophobia he largely eschewed on Recovery has also returned with a vengeance – in some respects it seems, Eminem does indeed remain trapped in the 90s. The constant misogyny is deeply wearing, and acknowledging his own hypocrisy (‘If anyone ever talks to one of my little girls like this I would kill him’) does not excuse it. It’s also concerning that Eminem, now aged 40, has failed to outgrow some of his more adolescent fixations. Then there’s Monster featuring Rihanna, which is the worst kind of pop-rap – it sounds like it was written by a committee of studio execs looking to replicate the successful formula of Love the Way You Lie, and it’s truly awful. But while the song is certainly a technical achievement, it’s kind of the rap equivalent of a lengthy guitar solo – it certainly demonstrates Eminem’s prodigious vocal talents, but musically it’s not hugely interesting. It’s already gained a lot of attention for the astonishing 30 second verse in which Em raps at a machine-gun four words a second. The album doesn’t always provide such consistent value.
Most of all, it’s good to hear Eminem enjoying himself again – after hearing him spend half of Recovery apologising for Relapse, the gleeful, evil mirth he displays on ‘Brainless’ is a real treat. His trademark acerbic wit is also present and correct, and you’ll find yourself laughing at lyrics like ‘I’ve got 99 problems but a bitch ain’t 1/She’s all 99’. Nor is he afraid to slow it down where he needs to – Legacy is an edgy but thoughtful rumination on his childhood and future, while Headlights is an intriguing follow up to Cleaning Out My Closet in the form of an apology to his estranged mother. The rock-rap stomp of single Survival is effortlessly thrilling, and listening to his vocal gymnastics on the likes of Asshole demonstrates that even fifteen years on from The Slim Shady LP he remains one of the best rappers in the game. If MMLP2 never quite hits these heights again, then perhaps it’s merely because the bar has been raised so high. It’s the best thing he’s done in years, and deserves to be considered as much a classic as anything off his older albums. Ostensibly a sequel to his hit Stan, Em brings all his considerable lyrical abilities to bear, culminating in a final verse, part angry rant, part plea for redemption, which is simply jaw-dropping. These doubts survive mere seconds into MMLP2′s remarkable seven-minute opener, Bad Guy.
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And declaring his new project a full blown sequel to his original classic was surely setting himself up for a fall. The release of divisive first single Berzerk didn’t help with its Beastie Boys inspired, Rick Rubin produced beats, it left the impression that Eminem, a decade and a half after he first exploded onto the scene, was firmly trapped in the past. So the announcement of a new Eminem album perhaps didn’t cause quite the stir it might once have. But since 2002’s brilliant The Eminem Show, Marshall Mathers has rather faded into the background – the period since then has seen him release two mediocre albums ( Encore, Recovery) and one terrible one ( Relapse), while struggling with substance abuse. Has it really been thirteen years since The Marshall Mathers LP? It doesn’t seem like such a long time since Eminem released the album that elevated him to the rap pantheon.